BOOGEYMAN
US 2005, 89 minutes, Colour.
Barry Watson, Emily Deschanel.
Directed by Stephen Kay.
The American countryside in Boogeyman does not look quite American – perhaps that was intended to give an eerie atmosphere to this psychological horror story. Then the credits reveal that it was filmed in New Zealand where Sam Raimi’s company had spent years filming the television series, Hercules and Xena (which is why Lucy Lawless, the one time Xena, appears here – she is married to the producer as well).
Mention of Sam Raimi reminds us that he is a horror aficionado who made The Evil Dead, Darkman and The Gift. He and his partners have set up a new company to make horror thrillers. Their first was the US remake in 2004 of the Japanese film, The Grudge. It was a huge box-office success. The Boogeyman is their second film. And it is pretty good of its kind.
Raimi makes the important point that the parodies of the 90s, especially the Scream and Scary Movie franchises really brought the slasher horror genre to a close for the time being – although the Americans are still making and re-making derivatives of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Raimi goes on to say that the horor films breaking new ground are those from Japan and Korea (witness the Ring films and their US remakes). The emphasis is less on slash and gore but rather on atmosphere. They take ordinary people in ordinary situations and move them into a mysterious world, part natural, part supernatural, where it is hard to distinguish what is real and what is ghostly. At least, for the moment, this is a more fruitful way of dramatising horror – although it is less horror than terror.
Boogeyman is slight. Barry Watson is a grown up man who realises that his father’s bedtime story frightened him into imagining that the Boogeyman took his father away when he really walked out on his family. Or has he imagined it and what if the Boogeyman were still taking people away and stalking his old family home? What better than to go to confront fears in the home by staying overnight? The real answer is probably counselling but in lieu of this, that is what our hero does. And, yes, the Boogeyman is still there.
For the slasher fans, this may be tame stuff (check the comments posted on IMDb by those who want fright jumps). For those who prefer a little more subtlety, this one keeps one in tense tingling most of the way through.
1. The title, the traditions of the boogeyman? Appearances, closet, menace, abductions…?
2. The term, the homes, travel, the old house, sinister, memories? The musical score?
3. The focus on Tim, his experiences of his father, the disappearance, abduction, killed…? Growing up, the relationship with his mother, his uncle giving him the news that his mother had died? His relationship with Jessica?
4. The psychiatrist, his going to his old town, local suspicious and unfriendly, meeting Kate, the plan to confront his fears, going to the old house?
5. The appearance of Franny, her age, knowledge, interactions with Tim, her haversack, the posters for lost children, the suggestion they were taken by the boogeyman, their appearing?
6. The effect on Tim, Kate and his friends, taken, rattled, thrown around the house?
7. The motel, the portal, back to the house, the experiences of the Father, how much resolution?
8. Fans were disappointed with the film, confusing, not capitalising on the mystique of the boogeyman?
